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Aromatase Inhibitors: Did you decide to go on them or not?
Breast Cancer | Last Active: May 12, 2023 | Replies (1190)Comment receiving replies
For someone who does not yet have osteoporosis, I don't think there is a 100% chance of needing osteoporosis meds after or during an AI. Before being osteoporotic there are natural ways to protect bones and I would rather go natural with bones than with cancer!
If significant bone loss does occur, some people do short term osteoporosis meds (see Keith McCormick) and then maintain with natural methods.
With hormonal cancers the risk continues to grow so that 5% (which one test considers high risk) will continue to increase over time. With an early stage cancer that may be acceptable to some, but just want to mention that for balance 🙂
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The test that considers 5% risk of recurrence high is a different test from the OncotypeDX that I took that yielded a 3% risk of recurrence if I took AIs, meaning 5% if I did not. They are different tests, measuring different things and using differing statistical models. I don't want to confuse people about this.
The current thinking is that the rate of bone loss, from osteopenia to osteoporosis, while on aromatase inhibitors is faster than from osteoporosis to worse osteoporosis according to my endocrinologist who was recruited to Cleveland Clinic from the NIH where he worked on bone loss studies.
There are two issues at play; 1) the effect of estrogen depletion on bone density (and other things) and 2) the process by which aromatase inhibitors accomplish this.
The latter, with the accompanying side effects, which cause over 50% of women to discontinue the drug prematurely, is why research scientists are working to develop less toxic